OURVIEW: The perks of being a student

Student activities, buildings, athletics, buses, health, music and theater, computers, recreation or the library.

If you had to give up one of those, which would it be?

Surely each student has a ready answer to that, but just as surely there are hundreds of students who would be quick to defend the usefulness of each category.

Students pay $285.50 each semester in fees that are divided between these services the university provides. Thanks to the money paid by each student, we have access to the HPER and Fieldhouse, theater department productions, shuttle buses, the library and all its resources, nearly a dozen computer labs, sports events and health and counseling centers.

All for less than $300 per semester.

In the “real world” (which we are told is looming just beyond graduation), gym memberships cost $30-40 per month, theater tickets can run between $10 and $250 depending on the show and the venue, bus fares can cost a buck per ride, Jazz tickets run up to $100 a pop, doctor’s fees are outrageous, even for a simple checkup, and computers…

Well, maybe you’ll have one in your cubicle.

That sure racks up quickly.

Fees are going up again next year. Campus recreation and the library were granted an increase by the Student Fee Board.

So, scrape together $7.75 more and smile about it, because it will go to supporting recreation staff and improving the library’s electronic resources.

Though student fees mount up to a daunting requirement for many students, considering the benefits and privileges they afford us may make it a little easier.

Maybe our theater department isn’t Broadway.

Maybe all the treadmills are taken in the Fieldhouse.

Maybe the buses are cramped.

But, thanks to the library’s electronic journals our papers are better-researched and solidly written.

And, thanks to the HPER and Fieldhouse we always have a place to play a game of basketball or racquetball.

And, thanks to the computer labs, even those students who can’t afford a computer can have access to one.

But most of all, thanks to all of the services supported by the fees we pay, our college experience is better, and our education is more complete.

So although fees are going slowly but steadily up, the variety and quality of services USU can offer its students are also improving. And this is something worth contributing to.